This invention relates to a door assembly for installation into a house or building, and, more particularly, to reinforcement assembly for door jambs designed to reduce the risk of intrusion through the door.
According to some statistics, more than two million homes are burglarized each year. The majority of all burglary attacks are on residential property; two-thirds of these are through a primary entryway. Intruders often gain access to a building through an exterior door. Often, this act involves kicking the door in, breaking the door jambs or separating the door from its frame. Usually, if a burglar cannot make it into the building in one or two minutes, he will just move onto the next one. In order to slow an intruder it is therefore important to keep the doors and windows locked.
However, this basic technique may not be sufficient to prevent an amateur burglar from trying to access the building by force. In-swinging door assemblies can be attacked and easily forced due to the brittle nature of wood, plastic, or composite (WPC) jambs. The jamb failure can occur at both the strike (lock) side of the door and at the hinge side of the door.
Many buildings are constructed using flimsy strike plates. The strike plate is the metal plate that surrounds the lock set (the hole in the door frame where the lock bolt enters). Even though it is advisable to have 3-inch screws securing heavy-duty strike plates, many homes are built with lower quality strike plates or have strike plates that are secured with shorter screws that only attach to the door jamb, not the underlying stud. After-market, surface-mount hardware, such as larger strike plates are helpful but can cause jamb failure due to deflection of fasteners used in their installation. Strike side surface-mount hardware does not address attacks to the hinge side of the door assembly.
Even with a strong door and quality, properly-installed locks, a burglar may be able to gain entry by breaking or prying the door frame itself. Most door frame moldings are simply tacked to the wall, so a crowbar or a solid kick can easily separate the frame from the wall. There exists therefore a need for a simple an inexpensive modification of a door frame assembly that will significantly reinforce the door and deter would-be burglars.
The present invention contemplates elimination of drawbacks associated with conventional door frame construction and provision of a reinforced door frame assembly.